Now it’s spring again, we’ll bring again another idea to brighten up Broadgate, the Coventry council decided.

And had 30 giant artificial tulips ‘planted’ in the country’s largest civic patio.

Those cynics who sneeringly chorused ‘We can’t wait until the day... that we see what we have to pay’ need wait no longer.

The cost of some “springtime cheer,” as council leader John Mutton described it, was nearly £11,000.

That should certainly spring a surprise on Coventry taxpayers, especially when they consider the price was for just one week’s hire of the towering illuminated flowers.

If you weren’t around in Broadgate from February 17-24, then sorry, you blooming well missed out.

For that sort of cash, £10,836 to be exact, you would think the council could have planted a huge bed of real tulips covering most of the square.

It might have done if the grassed areas and mature trees hadn’t been ripped out to make way for block paving last year.

The city’s traditional heart was redeveloped as part of a wider £7million revamp of the city centre in readiness for the thousands of visitors expected to flood in for Olympic football at the Ricoh.

The stadium attracted good crowds but there was enough empty space in Broadgate for the tourists to have had a game there if they could have mustered the numbers.

Ironically, the money for the illuminated tulips came out of funds leftover for the Olympic celebrations.

Still, at least there is some lasting benefit. Jigantics, the Bristol-based company that produces the 30ft flowers, spends some of its profit supporting community projects in developing countries, like Zambia and Cambodia.